Grace is currently owned and operated by Veneco. Schools of fish hang out under the structure as well as some sea lions that use the platform as a home. There are anemones of all colors, shapes, and sizes as well as sponges, crabs, starfish, nudibranchs, scallops, and much more. The legs and cross braces of Grace (or any other oil rig) underwater are used as a home to an incredible amount and variety of sea life. Grace was installed in 1979 and sits in 320’ of water. Oil Platform Grace sits 10.5 miles off the coast of Ventura, California near Santa Cruz Island. You can also view a map of California Oil Rigs, courtesy of California Artificial Reefs Enhancement Program, and a listing of what company owns which rigs along the California coastline, courtesy of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Grace oil rig ![]() Rigs make incredible offshore artificial reefs to learn more, please check out California Artificial Reefs and Rigs to Reefs Luckily this is not the case for the three rigs available to divers-Elly, Ellen, and Eureka. Sometimes permission to dive them must be obtained well in advance from the oil company that owns them. Oil platforms are busy, privately owned workstations. Remember to be careful and responsible while out diving the oil rigs-any accident could cause a rig to be shut down to divers, losing a valuable diving resource. Divers used to be able to visit Grace out of Ventura Harbor, but it has been off-limits to divers since mid-2008. A few of the rigs that can be currently visited by divers are Eureka, Ellen, and Elley off the coast of Long Beach. Some of these rigs allow dive boats to bring out scuba divers to explore the bits of life that now call the support structure home. making a home for reef & wall critters, and a resting/feeding stop for open ocean species. The oil rig pillars and cross beams act as an open water oasis. Some of these rigs are in deep water their support structures rising from depths of 700 feet or more. ![]() Some are decommissioned, but most are still in active operation. There are plenty of offshore oil rigs along the coast of California and the few you can dive can be quite an awesome experience.
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